{"id":53,"date":"2014-11-29T22:13:57","date_gmt":"2014-11-29T22:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/sarasurani\/?p=53"},"modified":"2014-12-05T23:44:07","modified_gmt":"2014-12-05T23:44:07","slug":"the-qassi-lamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sarasurani\/2014\/11\/29\/the-qassi-lamp\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

IMG_9011<\/a> \"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

While reading The Qassi Lamp, many questions piqued my interest. The story addressed the perceived controversy between religion and science. Going to a school like Harvard, where only 6% of the undergraduate class categorizes itself as \u201cvery religious\u201d and 35% of the class is agnostic, the doubt many have for religion is somewhat contagious. Many a times I have questioned my beliefs, wondering if science could answer the questions I have about life better than my religion can. During this time, a close friend enlightened me with a simple story.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you believe that there\u2019s life in the sea beyond what is discovered?\u201d<\/em> He asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there is!\u201d <\/em>I responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you know?\u201d <\/em>He questioned.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWell, because some divers have seen it!\u201d <\/em>I exclaimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you seen this life?\u201d <\/em>He smirked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo\u2026\u201d <\/em>I hesitated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen how do you know it\u2019s real?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I stopped.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see, very few divers have gone to the depths of the ocean and told the world of the wonders they discovered. They tell us there is more. They tell us that we aren\u2019t even close to discovering all of the sea creatures out there! But we believe them, even if we haven\u2019t seen these creatures for ourselves. If this is the case, then seeing isn\u2019t believing. Just like this, few have experienced God closely for themselves, and told the world about his magnificence. However, just because we have not reached that point, it doesn\u2019t mean that it doesn\u2019t exist. You have to believe.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

As I researched, read, and learned more, I realized that science is the how and religion is the why. They don\u2019t contradict\u2014they coalesce. In order to represent this thought, I created my own version of the qassi lamp, or the saint\u2019s lamp. I took a clear glass vase as my base to represent how originally people had strong, pure beliefs in their religion. They did not doubt it. As years became decades and decades became centuries, layers of education covered the glass of faith. Layers of different colors, thoughts, theories, and ideas. However, the layers of science did not compromise belief in faith. Rather, it made the light more beautiful. Despite the controversies we have in the world today, the light of faith still shines through science. It still shines brightly. It doesn\u2019t conflict with the layers, rather, it joins with the layers to shine even brighter\u2014even more whole.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IMG_9011 While reading The Qassi Lamp, many questions piqued my interest. The story addressed the perceived controversy between religion and science. Going to a school like Harvard, where only 6% of the undergraduate class categorizes itself as \u201cvery religious\u201d and 35% of the class is agnostic, the doubt many have for religion is somewhat contagious. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sarasurani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sarasurani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sarasurani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sarasurani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sarasurani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sarasurani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sarasurani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sarasurani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sarasurani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sarasurani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}